How Democracies Live : Power, Statecraft, and Freedom in Modern Societies

Times have not been kind to democracy. This book is in its defense. In the new century, the triumph of democracy at the end of the Cold War turned to retrenchment.The core democracies, in America and Britain, succumbed to polarization and misrule.Dictatorships, such as China, made themselves assertive.New democracies in Central Europe turned to muddled ideologies of "illiberal democracy." In this book, Stein Ringen offers a meditation on what democracy is, the challenges it faces, and how it can be defended.Ringen argues that democracy must be rooted in a culture that supports the ability of citizens to exchange views and information among themselves and with their rulers. Drawing on the ideas of Machiavelli, Aristotle, Tocqueville, Max Weber, and others, Ringen shows how power is the fuel of government, and statecraft turns power into effective rule.Democracy should prize freedom and minimizing unfairness, especially poverty.Altogether, Ringen offers powerful insight on the meaning of